Richard from Mediavilla
Richard von Mediavilla OFM (* around 1249, † March 30, 1302 or 1303 or around 1308 in Reims ), English Richard of Middleto (w) n , Latin Richardus de Mediavilla , also called "Doctor solidus" , was a Franciscan religious , theologian and philosopher .
Life
Little is known about Richard's life and many details can no longer be ascertained. He was born in either France or England around the middle of the 13th century. Possibly he came from the Anglo- Norman family Menevill (also Meynil ) from Northumberland , England , whose name was Latinized to Mediavilla . Richard entered the Franciscan order and perhaps first studied in Oxford before moving to the University of Paris , where between 1276 and 1287 he defended supporters of Augustinism, which was revived by Bonaventure , against the attacks of followers of Aristotelianism . His tutors presumably included William of Ware and Matteo d'Acquasparta , who were among the leading defenders of Augustinism. From 1280 he gave lectures on the sentences of Petrus Lombardus . In 1283 he was mentioned as a member of a commission that dealt with the theological work of the Franciscan Petrus Johannis Olivi . From 1284 to 1287 he was the rain of the Franciscan school in Paris. In 1295 he was appointed Provincial of Francia . In this capacity, shortly afterwards, namely in 1296, he personally accompanied the entry of Louis of Toulouse into the Franciscan order. He died between 1302 and 1309.
plant
Mediavilla probably began his commentary Super sententias Petri Lombardi on the sentences of Petrus Lombardus in 1281 , which he completed in 1284. In it, however, he also adopted numerous assessments from Thomas Aquinas . A number of his theses correspond despite the traditionally strong alignment of the Franciscans on Augustine not the teachings of Bonaventure and Augustinianism. Especially when it comes to the nature of knowledge, Richard followed the Aristotle- inspired scholasticism as shown in the works of Thomas Aquinas. At the same time he wrote a Quodlibeta , which, however, largely criticized the theses of Thomas Aquinas. In addition, six of his sermons were published.
Mediavilla's connection to Augustine is particularly evident in his theses on the will, although he does not fully agree with his teachers William of Ware and Matteo d'Acquasparta. For him, the will mattered more than the mind, since he thought it was more correct to love God than to understand him. Understanding God without loving God would turn man away from God, and he saw freedom as the key to will. The mind is challenged by evidence. When evidence is possible, the will of man is required to seek God. According to Mediavilla, man can choose between several ways to find God. Even if the mind is wise enough to show people the best path to God, it means that man is not forced to follow that path. Accordingly, the mind illuminates the way like a servant with a lamp in the night, but the will ultimately decides and determines the direction in which a person goes to find God. The superiority of the human will over the mind is shown in Mediavilla's structure of theology. The study of the scriptures can certainly expand human knowledge of Creator and creation, but in principle it is intended to drive man to action. Mediavilla believed that the scriptures prescribed rules and prohibitions, and promised to attract people to set examples to follow or avoid. The study of scriptures would improve the soul and would bring it closer to God through fear and love. Theology is more of a practical science because if it were speculative it would diminish Christian belief.
The influence of the teachings of Thomas Aquinas is even more evident in Richard's theory of knowledge. Middleton rejected the doctrine of illumination by Bonaventure and his followers. According to him, human knowledge can be explained by the abstraction of the mind from the experiences of the senses. The human individual know and they know by the means of their own efforts of the mind and not by divine enlightenment. God can only be known through searching for the origin or the end of beings.
literature
- Jürgen Mittelstraß : Richard of Middletown. , in: Jürgen Mittelstraß (Hrsg.): Encyclopedia Philosophy and Philosophy of Science. 2nd Edition. Volume 7, Stuttgart, Metzler 2018, ISBN 978-3-476-02106-9 , p. 141 (with a detailed list of works and literature)
- Achim Krümmel: Richard from Mediavilla. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 8, Bautz, Herzberg 1994, ISBN 3-88309-053-0 , Sp. 212-213.
- Edwin Burton: Richard of Middletown . In: Catholic Encyclopedia , Robert Appleton Company, New York 1913.
- Edgar Hocedez: Richard de Middleton: sa vie, ses oeuvres, sa doctrine . Impr. Sainte-Catherine, Bruges and Paris 1925
- DE Sharp: Richard of Middleton . In: Franciscan philosophy at Oxford, British Society of Franciscan Studies, 16 (1930), pp. 211-276
- Edgar Hocedez: Les Quaestiones disputatae de Richard de Middleton . In: Recherches de Science Religieuse, 6 (1916), pp. 493-513 ·
- W. Lamps: Richard de Mediavilla . In: La France Franciscaine, 13 (1930), pp. 388-390
- Roberto Zavalloni: Richard de Mediavilla et la controverse sur la pluralité des forms . Editions de l'Institut Superieur de Philosophie, Leuven 1951
- P. van Veldhuijsen: Richard of Middleton contra Thomas Aquinas on the question of whether the created world could have been eternally produced by God. In: JBM Wissink: The eternity of the world in the thought of Thomas Aquinas and his contemporaries. Bril, Leiden 1990, ISBN 90-04-09183-1 , pp. 69-81
- MG Henninger: Hervaeus Natalis, b.1250/60; d. 1323, and Richard of Mediavilla, b.1245/49; d.1302 / 07. In: Jorge J. Gracia: Individuation in scholasticism: the later middle ages and the Counter-Reformation, 1150–1650 . State University of New York Press, Albany 1994, ISBN 0-7914-1860-X , pp. 299-318 ·
- FA Cunningham: Richard of Middleton, OFM on esse and essence . In: Franciscan Studies, New Ser., 30 (1970), pp. 49-76 ·
Web links
- Literature by and about Richard von Mediavilla in the catalog of the German National Library
- Publications about Richard von Mediavilla in the Opac der Regesta Imperii
- SF Brown: Middleton, Richard of (d. 1302/3). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004
Individual evidence
- ^ Friedrich Stegmüller: Repertorium commentariorum in sententias Petri Lombardi . F. Schöningh, Würzburg, 1947, p. 722
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Richard from Mediavilla |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Richard of Middleton (English); Richard of Middletown (English); Richardus de Mediavilla (Latin); Doctor solidus |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Franciscan, philosopher and theologian |
| DATE OF BIRTH | around 1249 |
| DATE OF DEATH | March 30, 1302 or March 30, 1303 or around 1308 |
| Place of death | Reims |